About Me

I'm a retired Army Nurse. I have time to travel the world on my own, on tours, or with Operation Smile where I volunteer as an operating room nurse to help fix children's cleft lip and cleft palates. I have been doing family research, in one way or another, for forty years. I welcome comments to the blog posts, or contact me at donwen (at) aol.com

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Saturday, June 9, 2012

At the Genealogy Jamboree 2012

The second day of the Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree is here. Yesterday I took the morning tour to the Autry National Center and Museum across from the LA County Zoo at Griffith Park. The Museum is amazing and very large. It was co-founded by movie cowboy, Gene Autry, but exhibits a history of the entire West, rather than his life. There is a very large art gallery of the western painters too. We had a talk by the Director, and she invited me to send emails to the research area and they can help with my research if they have helpful items in their many collections. I was thinking about the finding out more about which train my Blanding family might have taken from Florida to Los Angeles in 1903. Which railway station, etc. Also they might be interested in having the donation of the movie film my father made he titled "Los Angeles Builds A Ski Jump" - this was in about 1938. So I'll follow up with that.
In the afternoon I attended three sessions at the Jamboree, one by Bennett Greenspan of Family Tree DNA on "Everything you Wanted to Know about Consumer DNA Testing, but were Afraid to Ask", one by Steve Morse on "Genealogy Beyond the Y Chromosome; Autosomes Exposed" and Thomas MacEntee on "Internet Killed the Family History Star-How Technology Has Changed the Face of Genealogy" All great presentations, although the heat/cold situation in the pavilions needs to be adjusted.
My roommate, Lenore, and I attended the Hollywood Gala here at the Marriott Hotel, and had a very fine time talking to our noted tablemates: The Genealogy Guys, Drew Smith and George Morgan, and the crew from MyHeritage, including Shelly, Tara and Mark. Speakers Laura Prescott and Megan Smolenyak2 also stopped by. In attendance was child movie star Margaret O'Brien, and a movie star from the past who is now 102 years old. She was autographing her book! We had a nice pasta buffet and sparkling cider, among the treats.
Finally Susan Kitchens brought her telescope and we had a fine time looking through clear skies to see Saturn - including its rings. A fine first day to the Jamboree!
By the way, the top winners of the latest TV Show "American Idol" contest are at the hotel and, getting ready for the summer tour. Included are DeAndra B., Jessica S, and Joshua L. Also here are the contestants for the upcoming "The Voice" series.